History

CP Manufacturing’s story begins in the scrap metals industry – the forerunner of the modern recycling industry and systems you see today.

CP’s parent company, IMS Recycling Systems was founded in 1954 by Charles M. Davis as a buyer and seller of scrap metals.

In the early 1970’s, IMS and Alcoa Aluminum developed an aluminum can reclamation program to analyze the profit potential, as well as the environmental impact, of recycling aluminum cans. As the program grew, the need for separation and volume reduction equipment became very evident so Mr. Davis, being a mechanical engineer, invented the first aluminum can flattener – the CP100 – for use in his own yard. In answer to the demand from other companies to purchase this machinery, CP Manufacturing was founded.

CP Manufacturing was incorporated in 1977.

Taking advantage of IMS’s industry experience, as well as their R & D capabilities, CP continued to re-design and upgrade its aluminum can processing equipment to include several generations of can flatteners, can densors, glass crushers and other UBC processing and handling equipment to continue to offer the most state-of-the-art equipment in the industry.

In the latter part of the 1980’s, CP recognized that the trend was turning toward curbside collected recycling as mandated by municipalities and turned their design and engineering efforts in that direction.

In 1990 CP’s first Co-Mingled Sorting System was installed in Illinois. As the industry evolved, so did CP, adding OCC and Fiber Sort Lines to their Material Recovery Facility design layouts.

As the United States and other countries worked to increase the effectiveness of recycling by making it easier for consumers to participate and more cost effective to implement, CP dedicated their research and development efforts to assist in this effort.

In 1997 CP’s first Single Stream Sort System was installed in Australia

In 2000, IMS won the contract to process the City of San Diego’s Single Stream collected material using a system designed by CP.

Over the past decade, CP has evolved and grown expansively through acquisitions and partner relationships.

In August 2003, CP acquired MSS, a manufacturing company specializing in optical sorting solutions, further expanding our product line.

In late 2004, CP acquired Krause Manufacturing, the world leader in construction and demolition separation equipment and material recovery facilities.

In 2005, CP opened offices in the United Kingdom and formed CP Europe.

In 2009, CP formed an exclusive partnership with Ken Mills Engineering, producing a 50/50 owned company called CPME. In early 2011, CP formed an exclusive partnership with Impact Air of the UK, enabling us to directly offer our customer film and dust control solutions.

Today, CP Manufacturing and the CP Group have provided equipment for 6 continents and have designed, manufactured and installed over 400 Material Recovery Facilities, and over 10,000 pieces of UBC processing equipment. We continue to lead the industry with innovative design, quality construction and unsurpassed customer service.